a list of lists

i love that you will never visit me here
i love that I was wrong about that
i love when you make your lists
i love when you ask for my help with your computer
i love that you cook with more butter than I’ve ever seen in my life
i love your curly hair
i love how you calm me in a way i’ve never felt before
i love that you introduced me to a softer world
i love that you call your last major breakup your “fire”
I love your cat
i love how much you love hot sauce, and your quest for cholula powder
i love that you like the toilet seat down
i love your eyeballs, even if they’re not prettier than mine
i love that the first book you loaned me was on the mind game of tennis
I love that you have a zune instead of an iPod
I love that you like your chick music so much
i love how you came from bountiful
i love your lady lumps
i love that little bounce you do when you are so happy you can’t contain yourself
i love how you make me feel sexy, even when i’m smelly
i love when you are right
i love when you are cold and use me to warm you
i love that you called me on my lack of cuddliness the first morning we woke up together
i love that you don’t wear matching socks
i love that you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty, and you’ll try anything once
i love that you eat fast
i love when you send me horoscopes
i love when you give me random things that make me think of you more than i already do
i love that you know more about beer than i do
i love that you’re down for taco bell… spicy potatoes specifically.
i love going DI shopping with you
i love that you think i can fix anything with a swiss army knife
i love that you are patient with me at snowboarding, and know the effects of the game of tennis
i love when you think things are as funny as i think them
i love how calm you help me be… DJ White Noise!
i love that you now notice quality coffee more
i love that you’re not afraid to give me a willy nilly
i love that we made sushi together with your best friend and her boyfriend
i love merit badges
i love our point system and that you are beating me
i love that you are more intelligent than I am, and correct me on my mistakes
i love that you are generally laid back unless i tell you i’m gay at a chili’s
i love your teeth, and i find myself sometimes staring at them even when you don’t have glasses on
i love your earring fetish, unless we go to fred meyer
i love when you yell things at inappropriate times, like in front of my neighbor
i love when we study together
i love when you curl up in a ball above my head
i love that you take pictures of me while i’m sleeping, which basically means…
i love that you’re creepy
i love that you texted me on thursday
i love that you dance with me
i love when you finish my sentences, or give me the exact word I am looking for to convey a thought
i love you

off the grid

There is a beauty to simplicity that I haven’t really appreciated in a while. It’s where you stop thinking about how you can make something better, but how you enjoy something the way it is… imperfections and all. We cling to our smartphones, blackberries, iphones to help us organize our lives, but if our natural tendency is to be chaotic, these tools do us no good. Sometimes we may even blame them for our lack of completeness.

There have been several times in my life where I thought I would go postal and get all unibomber on everyone. I would go hide in the forest, chop wood, and hunt animals to survive. This is a far cry from the cubicle I have made my living off of for almost 10 years now.

I’ve been looking at some of the habits I have formed in the last year or two. I want to get to a point where the habits I have are healthy, and the technologies I use become tools and not obsessions. Do I really need to keep twittle open at all times and constantly watch what is going with my friends? Why is it that when I open a web browser my hands instinctively start typing “face…” These are the unhealthy habits that I’m talking about. Twitter and Facebook are tools. They are means of keeping in touch with friends or getting information, but it’s easy to get sucked in with the daily ramblings if you’re not too careful. Sitting at a computer for the majority of the day lends itself to these unhealthy habits.

In the last few months, my life has become simpler. I’ve been less distracted, more motivated, more conscious of what needs to happen, all while being (slightly) less dependent on technology. As I hear of more and more stories where people are using analog tools to manage their thoughts, it becomes more and more enticing to me. Keep a notebook instead of a custom built GTD solution. Use pencil more and pixels less. Read a live book and not an ebook taken from the pirate bay. Study tennis not by the way of YouTube, but by the way of a checked out book. It’s a very similar calming sensation that you get when you go camping, no push email notifications, no 15 minute meeting reminders. It’s just you and what you can do with your hands, not a mouse.

I won’t ever be able to go completely “off the grid” but I’m sure working hard to swing a little bit back to the other side… technology be damned.